100th Pasco area resident dies from COVID. Tri-Cities deaths total 308
Another Tri-Cities area person has died from complications of COVID-19, the Benton Franklin Health District announced Friday.
The woman, who was in her 70s, was the 100th Franklin County resident to die from the disease.
It is the second COVID death reported this month, following 18 deaths reported in March and 22 in February.
A total of 308 Tri-Cities area deaths have been reported since the start of the pandemic, including 208 residents of Benton County.
The health district has not reported whether those who died had underlying health conditions that put them at risk of a severe case of COVID-19 since the first of the year. A new privacy law covering death certificates took effect then.
Local public health officials verify that the deaths are due to COVID complications by checking for a positive test result and that a coronavirus infection was named as a primary cause of death on the death certificate.
Tri-Cities COVID cases
The Tri-Cities area has 51 more confirmed COVID-19 cases, the Benton Franklin Health District said Friday.
It brings the number of average daily cases for the week to 34, down from 37 the previous week. However, new daily case numbers were lower the two weeks before that, averaging about 30 to 31 per day.
The 51 cases reported on Friday include 25 in Benton County and 26 in Franklin County.
Franklin County’s case rate continues to be higher than Benton County’s.
Franklin County’s latest case rate reported is 182 new cases per 100,000 people for the most recent two-week period for which data is complete.
Benton County’s latest case rate is 137 per 100,000 for the most recent two-week period for which data is complete.
The number of people hospitalized locally for treatment of COVID-19 increased to 18 as of Friday, up from just eight reported on Wednesday.
They account for nearly 5% of all patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.
Washington state
The Washington state Department of Health reported 1,143 new cases of COVID-19 and 10 deaths Thursday. A quarter of American adults are now fully vaccinated against the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 373,212 cases and 5,316 deaths. Those numbers are up from 372,069 cases and 5,306 deaths Wednesday. The case total includes 24,781 infections listed as probable.
As of March 20, the date with the most recent complete data, 28 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.
Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admissions were slightly increasing at 38 in late March.
Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,247) approximately 77.5% (966) were occupied by patients Wednesday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 9.9% (124) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.
According to DOH data, King County, with the state’s highest population, continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 93,324 cases and 1,481 deaths. Pierce County, second in population, is second in cases, with 44,007, and second in deaths with 617.
All counties in Washington have at least 100 cases. Only 11 of the state’s 39 counties have case counts of fewer than 1,000.
There have been more than 30.9 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 560,065 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest total number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.
More than 2.89 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 133 million.
Craig Sailor with The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 2:00 PM.